Friday, December 6, 2013

Padang Food Tigers/Lake Mary 7" on Scissor Tail Editions

The epic post rock instrumental from Mono or Pelican or the more understated but just as complex instrumental folk from Pullman or even Tortoise both seem to work on the same part of my brain in polar opposite ways. Without the vocal you're free to associate the tracks in a more personal way; the post rock side goes right to more emotional, tougher parts of life and the quieter folk arrangements bore right down to childhood because god forbid I just listen to something. Both sides of this split from Padang Food Tigers and Lake Mary take the quieter instrumental angle and happen to both include the banjo which was used to great effect in the Hitchhikers Guide BBC radio adaptation also listened to on vinyl as a youngster. Weird.

On the A-Side Padang Food Tigers open "Crabbing King Sappling" with that Hitchhikers banjo and a sample of dogs losing their mind from a block away. So many subtle samples underneath the guitar and banjo slowly picking away with accordions and people shuffling through rooms. A piano in an even larger space is slowly struck with a long attack and an even longer delayed electric with a hint of synth? I like how they keep playing with your perception of the space here, this banjo could be captured on a long distance cassette player only to come in with crystal clarity from your inner ear on the next measure. Silences are just as keenly captured and become a voice between notes but watch for the Dead Man style distortion that ends this one, throwing nearly all the kitchen sinks from all your collective childhood houses into this one.

Lake Mary contributes B-Side's "White River" and a long synth tone that teeters between channels across the left and right taking the slower approach to build those layers like an orchestra tuning up but closer to mother nature getting ready for a massive drop. All tension filled these tones are slight variations on each other and come off like the Disintegration Loops buried under huge delay - all the echoes and reverb's in the world chained together and simultaneously fading up and out. An acoustic bounces around quietly at first but is poised on a bigger more complex piece which is more optimistic since the world just ended a few moments ago. Especially this banjo, there's something goofy about that instrument, here it keeps the piece humble, even when those serious packs of strings wander in looking to hijack this thing colliding both worlds in a Books kind of way.

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